再從古希臘的文明讀起。
/ Plato /
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"A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men." 如果這樣比例，古代雅典不會如此璀璨？
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"Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered a pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle."
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Born: 428/427 or 424/423 BC, Athens, Greece
Died: 348/347 BC (age c. 80), Athens, Greece
Notable work: Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, Meno, Parmenides, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Symposium, Timaeus
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"Good men are unwilling to rule, either for money's sake or for honour.... So they must be forced to consent under threat of penalty.... The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself. That is the fear, I believe, that makes decent people accept power."
--from Plato's THE REPUBLIC
--from Plato's THE REPUBLIC
"The inexperienced in wisdom and virtue, ever occupied with feasting and such, are carried downward, and there, as is fitting, they wander their whole life long, neither ever looking upward to the truth above them nor rising toward it, nor tasting pure and lasting pleasures. Like cattle, always looking downward with their heads bent toward the ground and the banquet tables, they feed, fatten, and fornicate. In order to increase their possessions they kick and butt with horns and hoofs of steel and kill each other, insatiable as they are."
--from THE REPUBLIC by Plato
"The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."
--from "The Republic: The Complete and Unabridged Jowett Translation" by Plato
Toward the end of the astonishing period of Athenian creativity that furnished Western civilization with the greater part of its intellectual, artistic, and political wealth, Plato wrote The Republic, his discussion of the nature and meaning of justice and of the ideal state and its ruler. All subsequent European thinking about these subjects owes its character, directly or indirectly, to this most famous (and most accessible) of the Platonic dialogues. Although he describes a society that looks to some like the ideal human community and to others like a totalitarian nightmare, in the course of his description Plato raises relevant questions about politics, art, education, and the general conduct of life. The translation is by A. D. Lindsay.
Note this is also translated as "our need will be the real creator."
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